Source: The Extinction Protocol - 1/04/13

January 4, 2013 – CLIMATE - Snow coverage in the United States on New Year’s Day was the most in 10 years with 67 percent of the 48 contiguous states covered by snow, meteorologists say. That surpassed the previous record set in 2010, when the new year saw 61 percent of the United States beneath snow, AccuWeather.com reported Thursday. That was the year of the mid-Atlantic blizzard dubbed “Snowmaggedon” that set a long list of records in cities such as Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore.

“As far as New Year’s Days go, I think that our [2013] snow cover is very healthy,” AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Jack Boston said. Unusually low snow coverage percentages since record keeping began in 2004, with the exception of 2010, have been an anomaly, Boston said. “The temperature of the North Atlantic ocean has been in a warm cycle and that has resulted in eastern North America, on average, having milder temperatures during the last decade.” However, he said, most of the contiguous United States was above normal in snow coverage for the month of December 2012 as well. –Terra Earth

EuroNews - 1/03/13

Officials on the Indian Ocean island of Reunion issued a code red warning as tropical storm Dumile made landfall.

Heavy rains and gusts of winds of up to 140 kilometres per hour continue to lash the French territory.

To read the rest of this story, visit EuroNews.

Source: EurekaAlert.org - Rob Gutro, 1/02/13

Caption: On Dec. 31, NASA's TRMM satellite 3-D Precipitation Radar data showed that the tops of some of the powerful storms with heavy rainfall (red) on Freda's southern side reached heights of 16 km (~9.9 miles) Credit: NASA/SSAI, Hal Pierce

Tropical Storm Freda may no longer be a tropical storm, but as a low pressure area it is bringing rainfall and gusty winds to New Caledonia. Two NASA satellites captured two different looks at the storm.

Wind shear has punched Freda down to tropical storm status on Jan. 1 and weakened it to a remnant low pressure area on Jan. 2. NASA's Aqua satellite showed strong thunderstorms were over New Caledonia early on Jan. 2, while NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite peered under the hood of Freda's clouds and measured some moderate to heavy rainfall the day before.

Grist - 1/02/13, Philip Bump

It’s not yet official, but 2012 was the hottest year in American history. Recorded history, that is; we’ll allow climate change deniers the possibility that the United States was hotter when it was a still-forming Pangeal mass of semi-solid lava. Beyond that, though: hottest ever.

AccuWeather.com - 1/01/13, Jim Andrews

Tropical Cyclone Dumile, as of 0530 UTC Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013, was located east of northernmost Madagascar. Southeasterly offset of the low-level center, marked by red "+", from the deep convective clouds and heavy rain, was a result of "wind shear."

Tropical Cyclone Dumile is gathering steam over the western South Indian Ocean. Many residents from Madagascar to Mauritius will likely be warily watching the storm's progress.

Dumile, still a moderate tropical storm on Tuesday, was beginning to veer southward a few hundred miles east of northern Madagascar, and nearly 600 miles north-northwest of Mauritius.

To read the rest of this story, visit Accuweather.com.